An international trio has successfully blasted off into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. After more than two years of preparation, it took them only about 500 seconds to hit their orbit around the earth.

Now they will spend two days inside the capsule before docking with the International Space Station.

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, NASA's Michael Fossum, and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency will spend five months in space, undertaking over 40 scientific experiments including cancer research and the ability to grow food in space.